God Created the Integers: The Mathematical Breakthroughs That Changed History

Overview
God Created the Integers is a curated anthology of landmark mathematical writings chosen and introduced by Stephen Hawking. The collection gathers original texts and influential excerpts that trace the development of mathematics from antiquity to the 20th century, presenting both the ideas and the thinkers behind major breakthroughs. Hawking frames each selection with brief biographical sketches and commentary that emphasize historical context and conceptual significance.

Contents and Structure
The book is arranged chronologically, moving from early Greek geometry through the scientific revolution and into modern analyses of infinity and logic. Each chapter centers on a single mathematician or school and provides representative passages from their published work, often in translation, accompanied by Hawking's introductory notes. Rather than a textbook exposition, the volume aims to let the original voices speak, with editorial material to guide interpretation and highlight connections across eras.

Highlighted Figures and Texts
Selections include classical authorities such as Euclid and Archimedes, transformative early-modern figures like Newton and Leibniz, and later innovators such as Euler, Gauss, and Riemann. The anthology reaches into modern foundational questions with material from Cantor, Weierstrass, Hilbert and Gödel, showing the shift from geometric and algebraic methods to rigorous analysis and formal logic. The title echoes a famous remark about integers that captures the anthology's focus on both the timeless nature of certain mathematical truths and the human effort to discover and formalize them.

Hawking's Commentary and Approach
Hawking's introductions are concise, accessible, and often conversational, designed to orient readers who may not have deep mathematical training. He highlights why particular theorems mattered, how they altered subsequent developments, and what conceptual problems they resolved or created. Commentary emphasizes intellectual lineage and the ways in which breakthroughs reshaped the mathematical landscape rather than offering technical proofs of every result.

Audience and Purpose
The anthology suits general readers with curiosity about the history and philosophy of science, students seeking primary-source glimpses of foundational ideas, and historians of mathematics who appreciate well-chosen excerpts. It does not replace specialized histories or advanced textbooks but serves as a bridge between original writings and modern interpretation, making seminal arguments and arguments' rhetoric accessible to a wider readership.

Significance and Legacy
By assembling primary texts alongside readable introductions, the book invites readers to appreciate mathematics as an evolving human enterprise. It underscores how individual insights have opened new fields, posed enduring questions, and sometimes required centuries to mature. The collection encourages reflection on the continuity of mathematical thought and on the cultural and intellectual conditions that foster discovery.

Style and Presentation
Presentation is respectful of the original works, privileging quotation and selection over paraphrase, with editorial notes that clarify historical or technical points. The tone remains celebratory but measured, acknowledging both triumphs and unresolved issues. Readers leave with a sense of the depth and diversity of mathematical creativity and with pointers to original sources for further exploration.